Local college notebook
Bees sweep league awards
St. Ambrose’s Brett Newsome and Daniel Cutler swept postseason player of the year honors in the Midwest Collegiate Conference, and the Fighting Bees’ Jim Callahan was named the league’s baseball coach of the year.
Newsome, a junior first baseman from Palos Heights, Ill., was named the conference’s player of the year after batting .473 with 50 runs, 19 doubles, two triples and eight home runs for the conference champion Bees.
Cutler was the league’s pitcher of the year for the second straight year. The senior from Davenport finished the season with an 8-1 record and a 2.25 ERA. He pitched four complete games, two shutouts and had 49 strikeouts.
Callahan led St. Ambrose to a 21-3 conference record and the Bees’ eighth conference title, the program’s fifth during his 12 years.
Newsome and Cutler were joined as first team all-conference choices by five other St. Ambrose players, second baseman Joey Martin, third baseman Kyle Roesler, outfielder Casey Raisbeck, catcher Mark Gaulden and pitcher Justin Mottet.
Softball
Queen Bees named
St. Ambrose infielder Kara Glunz, outfielder Tara Miller, pitcher Megan Marlier and utility player Melissa Kreuger, a second baseman and pitcher, were given first-team all-conference honors in softball by the Midwest Collegiate Conference.
Ashford’s Sarah Manning was named to the first team as an at-large selection.
Football
Illinois horseshoe sold out
Illinois announced that only sideline season tickets remain for the 2008 football season after the sellout of 10,000 horseshoe season tickets.
Sideline season tickets, priced at $225 each for six home games, remain available.
Lingner, Reda make list
Two former Illinois football players from the Quad-Cities were selected among the top 10 specialists as the best at trade in the Illinois football history.
As part of an online balloting to determine the greatest football players in Illinois history, part of the celebration of the rededication of Memorial Stadium, snapper Adam Lingner and kicker Jason Reda were chosen.
Lingner, a Rock Island Alleman graduate who played for the Illini from 1979 to 1982 and Reda, a Rock Island alum who completed his career last fall, were among those chosen from a group of candidates that included players who earned at least second team all-Big Ten honors or played four years in the NFL.
Volleyball
Augie netters named
Augustana senior Rafael Romero and sophomore Chris Mullin were named Tuesday to the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin all-conference men’s tennis team.
Romero earned first-team honors following a 20-12 season while Mullin took second-team recognition after going 15-12 for the Vikings.
Report
Baseball
Ambrose advances
JOLIET, Ill. — Tyler Fletcher and Kyle Merten each drove in two runs as St. Ambrose rallied to knock off Judson 9-3 Tuesday in the first round of of the NAIA Region VII baseball tournament.
After allowing three first-inning runs, St. Ambrose starter Daniel Cutler shut down Judson.
Cutler allowed two earned runs while striking out eight and walking two in nine innings.
After scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning, St. Ambrose (32-10) scored two in the sixth, five in the seventh in one in the eighth.
Fletcher had two hits for the Bees and also scored two runs.
The Bees face the winner of Saint Xavier and William Penn today at 2 p.m.
— Staff and wire reports